Syrian Military Reinforcing Its Air Defenses Near Golan

Syrian military reinforcing its air defenses near Israeli Golan -- report

The Syrian military recently deployed additional air defenses near the border with Israel amid heightened tensions over Iran’s presence in Syria, a commander in the pro-regime coalition told the Reuters news agency Tuesday.

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s forces also planned to set up more anti-aircraft weapons in the area in coming days, said the officer, who was identified as a non-Syrian who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The deployment was announced days after the Israel Defense Forces launched a surprise exercise on the Israeli Golan Heights.

The military said the exercise was not tied to current events but was “planned in advance as part of the 2018 training schedule.”

According to the Reuters report, the air defense reinforcement included the deployment of a Russian-made Pantsir S-1 system, also known as a SA-22, which the commander said was meant to “renew the air defense system against Israel in the first degree.”

The Israeli Air Force destroyed a SA-22 air defense system last month after Iranian forces launched 32 rockets at Israeli military positions on the Golan Heights, the army said at the time.

After weeks of threats and in retaliation for Israeli preemptive strikes, on May 10, the IRGC’s al-Quds Force launched 32 rockets at Israel’s forward defensive line on the Golan Heights border, the IDF said. Four of them were shot down; the rest fell short of Israeli territory. In response, over the next two hours Israeli jets fired dozens of missiles at Iranian targets in Syria and destroyed a number of Syrian air defense systems.

Israel also destroyed a significant amount of Syrian anti-aircraft weapons in February after an Iranian drone carrying explosives briefly entered Israeli airspace before it was shot down. Israel immediately launched a counterattack on the T-4 air base in central Syria from which the drone had been piloted. One Israeli F-16 fighter jet was shot down by Syrian air defenses in the exchange.

In both cases, Israel fired on the Syrian air defense systems that attacked IAF jets. Last month, a senior air force official said the military would not attack those anti-aircraft batteries that refrain from targeting Israeli planes.

“All batteries that fire on Israeli aircraft will be destroyed. All batteries that do not fire on us will not be destroyed,” he said.

Israel fears that as the civil war winds down, Iran, whose forces and Shiite proxies have backed Assad, will entrench militarily in Syria and turn its focus — and missiles — toward Israel.